C15 - The Ferment of Reform and Culture 1790-1860

Question 1

James Russell Lowell

Answer 1

One of America’s better poets. Famous for his 1846 “Biglow Papers”: political satire (cartoons)

Question 2

Knickerbocker group

Answer 2

3 of the first American writers of literature and novels: Washington Irving, James Fenimore Cooper and William Cullen Bryant.

Question 3

Louis Agassiz

Answer 3

Swiss born biologist, doctor and geologist who came to teach at Harvard.

Question 4

Women’s Rights Convention

Answer 4

1848: NY. Elizabeth Stanton read Declaration of Sentiments” which said that all men and women were created equal.

Also demanded women’s right to vote.

Question 5

Charles G. Finney

Answer 5

Great revivalist preacher in 1830s. Held huge revivals. Invented the anxious bench where sinners could repent before the congregation. Against alcohol and slavery.

Question 6

Oliver Wendell Holmes

Answer 6

Taught anatomy at Harvard Medical School, but also a fascinating conversationalist and speaker.

Question 7

Brigham Young

Answer 7

1846-1847 a new leader Brigham Young led his followers to Utah to escape bad treatment. He had 27 wives.

The Mormons created a thriving society by 1850.

Because of polygamy, Utah was not named a state until 1896. The US outlawed polygamy.

Question 8

Washington Irving

Answer 8

1st American to become known internationally as an American writer. Wrote Rip Van Winkle and Legend of Sleepy Hollow.

Question 9

Francis Parkman

Answer 9

Wrote history books in 1851 about the struggle between Britain and France for power in America.

Question 10

Maine Law

Answer 10

1851: Was one of first laws regarding temperance.

Question 11

Gilbert Stuart

Answer 11

American painter from Rhode Island. Was one of America’s most famous portrait painters.

Question 12

Edgar Allan Poe

Answer 12

One writer who did not believe in human goodness and social progress like most other writers of his time.

He was orphaned at an early age, was in poor health, married a 13-year-old girl who later died of tuberculosis. He suffered hunger, cold, poverty and debt. An alcoholic.

Wrote the “Raven” and “The Fall of the House of Usher”. Wrote ghastly works and horror.

Question 13

Nathaniel Hawthorne

Answer 13

Novelist/author. One book was Blithedale Romance in 1852.

Heavy Puritan/Calvinist themes. Wrote the “Scarlett Letter”.

Themes included exploring the presence of evil.

Question 14

Deism

Answer 14

Believed in reason and science more than the Bible. They still believed in God/a supreme being.

Sparked movement from severe Puritanism of the past to Unitarianism, a believe that God is 1 person. Also that people can gain salvation through good works and living morally. Appealed to intellectuals as more reasonable.

Question 15

Mormons

Answer 15

1830. A rugged visionary said he had received gold plates from an angel. They became the Book of Mormon and launched the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints (the Mormons). This was a new American-born religion.

Mormons were treated badly because others disagreed with their beliefs, especially polygamy. 1844: Joseph Smith and his brother were killed in IL.

Question 16

Phineas T. Barnum

Answer 16

Founded P.T. Barnum Circus.

Question 17

Second Great Awakening

Answer 17

1800: boiling reaction against growing liberalism (Deism and Unitarianism) in religion. Swept across the south and some Northeastern cities.

Encouraged energized evangelism and rousing emotionalism and influenced movements like the women’s movement, temperance cause, prison reform and anti-slavery movement.

Huge camp meetings would sometimes have 25,000 people listening to “hellfire” gospels for days. Some people would “get religion” and have frenzies of rolling, dancing and jerking as they were being “saved”.

Methodists and Baptists gathered the most new members through this revivalist movement. They stressed “personal conversion” or being saved as ways to get to heaven, not predestination.

Peter Cartwright was best known traveling preacher. With bellowing voice and flailing arms, he demanded that sinners should repent and converted many souls to the lord.

Charles Grandison Finney was the greatest revival preacher - led massive revivals in 1830s.

Key to the Second Great Awakening movement was making women more important in religion.

Question 18

Joseph Smith

Answer 18

1830. A rugged visionary said he had received gold plates from an angel. They became the Book of Mormon and launched the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints (the Mormons). This was a new American-born religion.

Mormons were treated badly because others disagreed with their beliefs, especially polygamy. 1844: Joseph Smith and his brother were killed in IL.

1846-1847 a new leader Brigham Young led his followers to Utah to escape bad treatment. He had 27 wives.

The Mormons created a thriving society by 1850.

Because of polygamy, Utah was not named a state until 1896. The US outlawed polygamy.

Question 19

Henry David Thoreau

Answer 19

Close friend of Emmerson - a poet and transcendentalist and anti-slavery. Wrote “Walden: Or Life in the Woods” in 1854. Also wrote “On the Duty of Civil Disobedience”.

His writings influenced later leaders like Martin Luther King.

Question 20

Emma Willard

Answer 20

Established one of the first colleges for women: Troy Female Seminary.

Question 21

Stephen Foster

Answer 21

Known as “Father of American Music” Wrote Camptown Races, Old Folks at Home, My Kentucky Home.

Question 22

Shakers

Answer 22

Religious community started in 1770s. 6000 members by 1840. They prohibited marriage and therefore became extinct (no new babies born into their group) by 1940.

Question 23

James Fenimiore Cooper

Answer 23

First American novelist to gain wide recognition. Wrote Last of the Mohicans, The Spy and Leatherstocking Tales.

Question 24

Horace Greeley

Answer 24

American newspaper editor. Outspoken against slavery.

Question 25

Herman Melville

Answer 25

Orphaned and ill-educated. He wrote Moby Dick in 1851, which was not popular until after his death.

Question 26

Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

Answer 26

Not a transcendentalist, but influenced by the movement. Taught at Harvard and was one of the most popular American poets ever.

Question 27

Hudson River School

Answer 27

Art school that specialized in painting natural landscapes.

Question 28

Declaration of Sentiments

Answer 28

Elizabeth Cady Stanton read these at the Women’s rights convention. Said that all men AND women were equal.

Question 29

Walt Whitman

Answer 29

Bold, brassy, from Brooklyn NY. Wrote Leaves of Grass in 1855, a collection of poems. Romantic, emotional and unconventional and wrote frankly about sex. His book was banned in Boston.

Question 30

Peter Cartwright

Answer 30

Methodist religious revivalist.

Question 31

Dorothea Dix

Answer 31

Fought for better treatment of mentally ill people. They had been treated terribly, chained in dirty prisons. She pushed the idea that they were ill, not purposely criminal.

Question 32

John J. Audubon

Answer 32

Bird lover who published “Birds of America”. The Audubon society for the protection of birds was named after him.

Question 33

Unitarianism

Answer 33

movement from severe Puritanism of the past to Unitarianism, a believe that God is 1 person. Also that people can gain salvation through good works and living morally. Appealed to intellectuals as more reasonable.

Question 34

Susan B. Anthony

Answer 34

Quaker and militant speaker on women’s rights.

Question 35

Burned-Over District

Answer 35

Religious scene in NY in early 1800s.

Question 36

Noah Webster

Answer 36

1828, published first dictionary - took 20 years to write it.

Also published school books that were popular for children.

Question 37

Millerites

Answer 37

Followers of William Miller who preached about the Second coming of Jesus Christ- to happen in 1843.

Question 38

Ralph Waldo Emerson

Answer 38

Writer and poet who wrote from the perspective of transcendentalism. He was a favorite speaker and gave an address at Harvard called The American Scholar.

By 1850s he was outspoken against slavery.

He wrote about self reliance, self-improvement, optimism and freedom, all themes that were popular.

Question 39

Horace Mann

Answer 39

Secretary of MA Board of Education, he pushed for great improvements for public education.

Question 40

William H. Prescott

Answer 40

Wrote history books about military actions in Mexico and Peru.

Question 41

Neal Dow

Answer 41

Father of prohibition. Sponsored Maine law of 1851, outlawing production of alcohol.

Question 42

John Greenleaf Whittier

Answer 42

Writer who was very strongly against slavery and became very influential, prompting social action against slavery. He was the poet of human freedom.

Question 43

William Cullen Bryant

Answer 43

One of the first American poets.

Question 44

Elizabeth Cady Stanton

Answer 44

Mother of 7 who insisted on leaving the word “obey” out of her wedding vows…a women’s rights advocate.

Question 45

William Gilmore Simms

Answer 45

Most famous writer from the South before the Civil War. Wrote 82 books with themes that dealt with the southern frontier during colonial days and during the revolutionary war.

Question 46

American Temperance Society

Answer 46

Formed in 1826 in Boston. A movement to encourage people to drink alcohol in moderation.

This was a reaction to the bad effects being caused in society by drunkenness. Destroyed families, caused accidents and missed days at work, etc.

Question 47

Robert Owen

Answer 47

1825 formed a communal/group society in Indiana. He believed in early socialist thought.

Question 48

Lucretia Mott

Answer 48

Became mad when she and fellow women at the London antislavery convention of 1840 were not recognized.

Question 49

William H. McGuffey

Answer 49

Wrote school books.

Question 50

transcendentalism

Answer 50

1830s: Religious and philosophical movement. Believed in inherent goodness of people and nature and did not like organized religion.

Question 51

Early Colleges/Universities

Answer 51

University of Virginia, founded in 1819. Brainchild of Thomas Jefferson. Focused on freedom of religion, modern languages and the sciences.

Women’s universities started in 1820s and 1830s (there was still some bias against women being educated…some thought their place was in the home). Eg. Troy Female Seminary in New York, Oberlin College in Ohio and Mount Holyoke in Massachusetts (started by Mary Lyon).

Question 52

lyceum lecture associations

Answer 52

By 1835 there were 300 of these groups that traveled and lectured to groups to educate on topics like science, literature and moral philosophy. Ralph Waldo Emerson was one.

Question 53

Louisa May Alcott & Emily Dickinson

Answer 53

Alcott wrote “Little Women” - she wrote to help support her family.

Dickinson lived as a recluse (alone) but created her own original world through poetry. She refused to publish any of her poetry while alive. All was published after her death.

Question 54

George Bancroft

Answer 54

Called “Father of American History” as he was the first author to research/write American history books.

Also was Secretary of the Navy and founded the Naval Academy in 1845/